


A Quest for Love

by maeusetod



Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Shadowhunter Chronicles - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - MMORPG, Established Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood, M/M, Model Magnus, Slow Burn, clary is a disaster in playing mmorpg, does it count as a fake-relationship-au if they get married in an online game?, popular Jace
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-16
Updated: 2018-01-16
Packaged: 2019-03-05 18:06:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13393338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maeusetod/pseuds/maeusetod
Summary: Simon might be one of the top ranked player of Shadowhunters but he can never beat Golden_Heron of the Clave Guild and it’s driving him nuts. Having a crush on the most popular boy on campus and trying not to fail his studies in computer science doesn’t help either.





	A Quest for Love

In the distance you could see the sun setting illuminating a city with towers build of glass, glowing in warm colours of red and orange like the glass was melting in flames. In contrast the leaves of the trees where shining in tones of blue and green while butterflies and bees surrounded the wildflowers growing beneath. Clary strolled around the forest looking around, trying to get a sense of her. Clary began to walk faster now, hopping onto stones and jumping up and down.

A figure appeared to her right. At first glance she had thought he was a man but now she could see his red eyes, white skin and fangs. He had brown short hair and dark clothes and a large sword shouldered on his back.

Daylighter sent you a fried request.  
Accept Decline

You are now friends with Daylighter

[Daylighter]Clary that’s me, Simon

[Fairchild]Hi Simon, I chose a character already while you were gone

[Daylighter]But WHY did you choose a Nephilim????

[Fairchild]They look pretty

Clary had decided to make her avatar similar to herself with red hair and fair skin but the tone of the hair was slightly darker than her own so the end result reminded her more of her mother than herself. The only clothing female Nephilim got at the beginning was a simple white dress that gave them a rather innocent appearance. It somewhat contradicted with the black runes varying in design that covered all of The Nephilim’s body. Except for the one time where Clary had wanted to have a tattoo of a mutant ninja turtle on her shoulder when she was young, she had never been bold enough to get herself a tattoo, even when she had already sketched tons of designs for different body parts.

Daylighter invites you to join the guild ROCK SOLID PANDA  
Accept Decline

You are now part of the guild ROCK SOLID PANDA

[Fairchild]So how many people are in your guild?

[Daylighter]Actually it’s only the two of us right now, but we will find other people but first we have to leave Alicante

[Fairchild]Why?

[Daylighter]Because I’m a vampire and they are not very welcomed in Nephilim territory. Couldn’t you have waited for me? Now we can’t even be parabatai and I really wanted to have the parabatai skills. It would have been so much easier if we were parabatai.

[Fairchild]You’re rambling as much online as you are in real live. What is a parabatai?

[Daylighter]To players can become parabatai and if they play together their XP doubles but they also loose health is the other player loses health

[Fairchild]Great let’s do this

[Daylighter]We can’t. It only works if we have the same race

[Fairchild]That’s a stupid rule

[Daylighter]You could set up a new character

[Fairchild]No, I like this one.

[Daylighter]We could also get married

[Fairchild] ???

[Daylighter]You can marry in the game

[Faichild]I’m not marring you, neither in the game nor in real life Simon

After Simon’s confession that he loved her and her telling him she would move to London she graduated their friendship had been more than rocky. She was afraid she would lose him as a friend and after all this time together she knew it would break her heart. That is why she had accepted playing this game, even if she had never played an online game in her life with the exception of snake on her old Nokia and knew it would be hard to keep up with Simon’s expectations. At least then she would understand more of the stuff he was talking about and maybe it would strengthen their friendship again.

[Daylighter]You’re too cruel. I’m not helping you to level up

[Fairchild]I can do that on my own

[Daylighter]It was my idea to teach you how to play, so let’s do it together

[Fairchild]Lead the way

[Daylighter]Just stay on the path

Clary followed Simon, or better his avatar along a path through the forest but couldn’t resist the urge to look around and admire the scenery. She knew that after they were done she would take her sketchbook and paint some of the images. Even if she wasn’t really into those online games and she was only doing it because Simon had begged her she had to admit that the artwork was amazing and she began to wonder what it would be like to design a whole new world for an online game.

Simon stopped and she ran into his avatar. From the depth of the forest a wolf ran towards them. It was howling all the way. She expected Simon to do something but the wolf attacked him and he did nothing.

[Daylighter]That’s a low level enemy, you can fight the wolf. First activate angelic grace and then attack him with your knife or blade or whatever Nephilim’s get at their first weapon.

[Fairchild]Ok, I’ll try

Clary felt stupid having to look at the keys while trying to figure out what to do. When she watched Simon play it all looked so easy. His fingers were basically flying over the keyboard, almost like he was playing an instrument. She tried attacking the wolf but it started changing positions and more often than not she was just slicing air. The edges of her screen started to taint red and the green bar over her name was fading rapidly. In the end Simon had to kill the wolf with a single blow of his sword. Simon quickly restored her health and they continued walking. Clary knew by then it wouldn’t be an easy path to walk.

 

***

 

After watching Clary die for the fifth time Simon started regretting the idea of teaching Clary the art of playing Shadowhunters. He had missed spending time with her. With their studies, Simon playing this game and Clary’s constant skyping with her boyfriend in London they had rarely seen each other the whole month. After all the members of his guild left him, he got the idea that he should teach Clary, not thinking about the fact that she would behave online like in real life: rushing into everything without a plan and trying everything on her own without listening.

At least they had almost reached neutral territory. They had left the forest behind and were now walking in a green valley. Clary was walking ahead and it looked to Simon as if she was way more interested in the scenery than in killing monsters the way she turned her avatar around all the time. Simon opened the map to see which territory would be best to level Clary up and when he had decided were to go Clary was already nowhere to be seen.

[Daylighter]I told you not to leave the path

[Fairchild] This waterfall looks awesome, can Nephilim swim?

[Daylighter]Don’t go into the water

[Fairchild]Yes they can. Come swim with me

[Daylighter] Don’t go further into the water. Wait for me!!!

He activated vampire speed and ran along the path until he saw the waterfall in question. As much as he didn’t like Clary’s choice of playing a Nephilim he had to admit the territory of Idris was beautiful. From high cliffs overgrown with rich green grass cascaded a waterfall down into a blue lake shimmering in the morning sun.

As he went down towards the lake he could hear the change in music indicating an enemy approaching. Clary was already in the middle of the lake as the curtain of the water was broken and a dragon rose towards the sky. Of all the monsters and demons in this game Clary had to wake a dragon. There was no way he could kill it by himself. He could only try to hold it back enough, so that Clary could swim back to the shore. Maybe then they had a chance to run away before getting killed.

[Daylighter]Come out of the water now!!!

He shouldn’t have taken the time to write because now the dragon was already flying towards Clary and by the time he would have switched to bow and arrow she would already be dead. He switched as fast as he could but an arrow flew towards the dragon and pulled the attention of the animal away from Clary. Next he saw two Nephilim running closer to it, a male and a female avatar.

The male had long blond hair while the hair of the female Nephilim was dark red and almost to her knees. Both warriors attacked the dragon while a constant stream of arrows hit it. He also saw a male warlock with blue hair and a dark green gown move towards the dragon in a leisurely pace. He was no Nephilim but a Half-demon.

The dragon was losing health and Simon decided that they had a chance to kill it even with only five players around, not counting Clary because she would be of no help, so he joined them. Simon noticed that a strengthening spell, must be from the warlock and angelic grace were put on him. He didn’t even know that angelic grace could be put on non-Nephilim players, must be a skill you could activate in later levels. The angelic grace let him activate skills he normally could only activate at nighttime in the play which was pretty awesome. He had even faster speed and more strength. He also noticed that the other players worked together perfectly. Even if they had no designated healer in their team, the warlock seemed to manage healing and attacking well.

The health of the dragon was going down even more rapidly and Simon got time to look who he was playing with. They all belong to the same guild called _The Clave_ and he even recognized one of the player’s names. The Golden_Heron was the top player on his server and the Clave was one of the best guilds. After he had lost all his guild members he had applied to join the Clave but had been turned down. Apparently he was still not good enough for them.

He had almost stopped playing too focused on seeing how the top player of the server attacked. Simon was neither a warrior nor a Nephilim, so he couldn’t apply any of his techniques on his own playing but he hoped he could still learn how to become as good. He wished to take a look at his screen to get a better understanding of it, but he knew it was an impossible thought.

Someone as invested in the game as the Golden_Heron could only be a person similar to himself, Simon thought as the dragon took its last breath and died.

 

***

 

Finally they had only one last dragon to kill and their quest would be done. As much as Magnus enjoyed playing Shadowhunters, he had better things to do today. As they neared the waterfalls they could see the dragon already flying. Magnus saw Jace running towards it and followed behind. A single player was trying a futile attempt to fight the dragon. Why he was doing so was as unclear to Magnus as it was impossible. It would be hard enough for the four of them. Arrows were flying in the direction of the dragon as Magnus looked for a good spot to aim him magic towards the beast.

He noticed that there were two players at the lake in front of the waterfall. A low level Nephilim was standing at the shore watching the fight. The vampire decided to continue fighting despite his health being at a critical level, so Magnus spared some magic to heal him.

[HellHathNoGlitter]What name is rock solid panda?

[Golden_Heron]A stupid one

[HellHathNoGlitter]It has a ring to it like a bad indie band on the verge of disbandment

[Scarlet_Boa] Maybe it is an indie band

[HellHathNoGlitter]Than it is condemned to fail

[Golden_Heron]If you don’t want to fight at least HEAL

[HellHathNoGlitter]You’re in no position to make demands Jace

[Silver_Hawk]Would you please heal?

[HellHathNoGlitter]But of course my dear

Magus concentrated on shooting magic again, healing his team members and the stray vampire and trying to fight the dragon as well. The sooner they were done here the better. The poor level 1 Nephilim that had clearly only begun the game could do nothing more than stay out of range and watch.

It took them a while but finally the dragon was dead and their quest completed. While everyone else seemed to pause for a moment, Magnus was the one to see what the dragon had to offer. It was a silver necklace with a red ruby that could only be useful to one of them. He took the dragon bones and scale for himself. He could use them to make a health potion later.

[HellHathNoGlitter]This is for you, Isabelle

HellHathNoGlitter hands Scarlet_Boa _the Ruby Neckless of Everlasting Strength_

[Silver_Hawk]Great we’re done

[Golden_Heron]Why is a vampire leveling a Nephilim?

[Silver_Hawk]Who cares?

[Golden_Heron]Let’s see if he is worth it

[Silver_Hawk]Just leave it, Jace

Golden_Heron has challenged Daylighter to a duel

Magnus didn’t understand why Jace always had to keep challenging players, when they all forfeited anyway. They lost to may points of glory at a loss and it was not forth it. Magnus looked over to Alec and saw him having that special look on his face that was a mixture of annoyance and fondness at the same time that seemed to be reserved solemnly for his brother.

Daylighter has accepted the duell

It seemed like giving up was not the vampires strong point. As Magnus had expected the vampire did lose but not as quickly as anticipated. It was quite a pleasant surprise to see someone hold against Jace. The vampire had reached critical health easily but he had fought against it and even reduced Jace’s health almost by half. It was in no way a fair fight as the Golden_Heron was a higher leveled payer with one of the best equipments, considering that he had done well.

[Golden_Heron]He is good

[Silver_Boa]My brother made a compliment, everybody wait I have to note time and date

[Golden_Heron] I stated a fact

[Silver_Boa]For you no one is good in this game

[Golden_Heron]Because most aren’t

[HellHathNoGlitter]Let’s go home, Alexander

[Silver_Hawk]We’re already home

HellHathNoGlitter is now offline

Silver_Hawk is now offline

Magnus raised his arms above his head, stretching his shoulders and back before moving from the table towards the couch waiting for Alec to join him. Alec made himself comfortable next to him and Magnus rested his head on Alec’s shoulders.

“Alexander, dear,” Magnus said to get his attention.

“Hmm,” was all he got as a reply as Alec took one of Magnus hands into his and moved closer towards him.

“You have to talk to Jace”, Magnus said.

“About?” Alec asked while he started taking the rings of Magnus fingers and playing with them and trying them on his hands. They looked a bit foreign and out of place but Magnus couldn’t push the thought out of his head that one day maybe a ring would decorate Alec’s hand permanently. It was of course way too early for that, them being together for only a bit over a year, but it was a nice thought nonetheless.

“About what?” Alec asked again because Magnus had been too distracted to answer the question.

“Jace's obsession,” he told him.

Alec grunted and Magnus knew it was a topic Alec was not fond talking about. Magnus thought they should talk about it anyway.

“You and me, we play this game for fun, Jace is playing it to seek comfort in it,” Magnus said.

“We only started playing it because Jace started playing it,” Alec told him.

“And Jace started playing it because he could create his own person in this game. I get that he needed an escape after all that has happened. Finding out he has living relatives, finding out the man who raised him wasn't his real father - that can't have been easy. It is okay that he did it but Alexander, he is playing this game nonstop. The only reason he is the top player of the server is, because he is barely offline,” Magnus said.

“Even if I tried talking to him it would barely make a difference. He rarely listens to anybody but himself,” Alec answered.

“Doesn’t he have some other interests, something more sophisticated like reading or playing the piano?” asked Magnus.

“Actually he does,” Alec answered.

“Like what?” Magnus probed.

“He reads and plays the piano,” Alec told him. Magnus looked at him with disbelieve but clearly Alec was not joking. He tried to imagine Alec’s brother sitting in front of a piano, but it was hard to come up with a picture of him having a relaxed expression and being at ease. He somehow only saw him smashing the keys angrily, so he banned the thought from his head and went on thinking about more pleasant things.

“I agreed playing his game because I thought we could do something together even if we were in different cities but look at us now,” Magnus said.

“I thought you liked playing,” Alec said, while putting the rings back where they belonged.

“I do, but I felt a bit lonely playing it today,” Magnus admitted.

“You were playing and petting the cat simultaneously, you’re the only one skilled enough with his hands to do both,” Alec told him.

“Oh I see what you are implying. We could try it next time,” Magnus said with a smirk on his face.

“What?” Alec asked and then realizing what he said continued, “no, I wasn’t.. that was not.”  
Magnus couldn’t help but laugh as he saw Alec blushing. He still found it endearing when Alec got shy in front of him. He couldn’t help but get closer to kiss him and with that all shyness disappeared as Alec kissed him back eagerly.


End file.
